Among the various alternative fuels, biodiesel is emerging as a promising choice for compression ignition engines due to its renewable nature and superior emission characteristics. The experimental investigations conducted by various researchers on variety of biodiesel fuels show a wide variation in engine performance and emission characteristics. The lack of correlations predicting various physical properties of biodiesel fuels derived from different feed stocks is posing a serious limitation to the combustion modelers. The present study attempts to evolve a comprehensive methodology for estimating the properties of biodiesel fuels based on their composition and chemical structure. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

K. Anand

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Composition

KAY'S RULE

Methyl esters

properties

THERMO-PHYSICAL

Biodiesel

Esterification

Esters

Machine design

Physical properties

SYNTHETIC FUELS

Alternative fuels

IIT Madras is a public technical and research university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1959, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance.

IIT Madras has been ranked as the top engineering institute in India for four years in a row by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the MHRD

It currently offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 16 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 596 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

IIT Madras

Applied Thermal Engineering

A unified methodology for predicting surface tension of oil and biodiesel is proposed. Effects of transesterification and compositional variations on surface tension of biodiesel are discussed and methods to address the variations are suggested.

RSC Advances

Predicting surface tension for vegetable oil and biodiesel fuels

Abstract For a liquid fuel, its vaporization characteristics are important. The determination of vaporization rates for alternative fuels such as biodiesel and its diesel blends is reported in this work. For this purpose, suspended droplet technique in conjunction with optical measurement of the droplet diameter is used. The physical processes occurring during the vaporization are studied at temperatures lower than the boiling point of the respective fuels to ascertain all the regimes of vaporization. Further, the vaporization characteristics are related to the composition of the fuel, which governs its thermal and physical properties. This study becomes important due to absence of such a comprehensive data in literature, and attempts to create a useful data-base for vaporization rates and related features of biodiesel fuels produced from sources such as jatropha, karanja, palm and coconut, and their diesel blends. The overall evaporation rates of neat and fuel blends are reported systematically. For neat fuels, the vaporization rates are seen to correlate directly with two parameters namely, heat transport and mass transport parameters, constituted using the gas-phase thermal and physical properties, as well as the liquid-phase density. Also, the vaporization rate is seen to inversely vary with a parameter called long chain saturation factor. All these parameters depend on the composition of the fuel. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

Vaporization characteristics of suspended droplets of biodiesel fuels of Indian origin and their diesel blends - An experimental study

From the energy security and environment standpoint, the biodiesel fuels derived from vegetable oils or animal fats appear to be promising alternative to fossil diesel. Although the engine experiments prove their viability, the scientific data base for characterizing biodiesel combustion is limited. Detailed studies on the characterization of biodiesel fuels and their effects on fundamental engine processes like droplet evaporation and combustion are essential. The present study evaluates the useful thermo-physical properties and droplet evaporation characteristics of biodiesel fuels. The droplet evaporation measurements are carried out using suspended droplet experiments on five biodiesel fuels of Indian origin viz. jatropha, pongamia (karanja), neem, mahua and palm. The droplet evaporation rates of these fuels are related to properties such as binary diffusivity and molecular weight, which in turn depend on their fatty acid composition. It is observed that palm methyl ester has the highest evaporation constant value of 0.1634 mm2/s and thus the lowest life time among the biodiesel fuels investigated. This value is attributed to its lowest molecular weight and highest molecular mass diffusivity. On the other hand, a reverse trend is observed for karanja biodiesel resulting in the highest lifetime among the fuel tested. Copyright © 2014 SAE International.

SAE International Journal of Fuels and Lubricants

Composition Effects on Thermo-Physical Properties and Evaporation of Suspended Droplets of Biodiesel Fuels

The concerns about clean environment, high oil prices, and stringent emission norms are the driving forces for the research on alternative fuels. Extensive investigations have been carried out in recent years on replacing diesel fuel by vegetable-oil-derived biodiesel fuel in compression ignition engines, mainly owing to its renewable source, reduced emissions, and direct usage without any engine modifications. The experimental work reported here has been carried out on a turbocharged, direct injection, multi-cylinder truck diesel engine using diesel fuel and neat karanja-oil-derived biodiesel under varying speed and load conditions. The results of the experimental investigation indicate that a maximum of 2.3°CA (crank angle) advance in dynamic fuel injection timing is observed with biodiesel compared with the diesel fuel. The ignition delay is lower for biodiesel compared with diesel fuel at all engine speeds. The peak cylinder pressure is higher at most of the operating conditions and the maximum rate of pressure rise is lower at low speeds and higher at high speeds for biodiesel compared with diesel fuel. In general an earlier start of combustion and lower combustion duration are observed for biodiesel relative to diesel fuel. The maximum thermal efficiency occurring at the maximum torque speed of 1400 r/min is observed to be 40.7 per cent and 40.5 per cent for diesel and neat biodiesel respectively. A significant reduction in unburnt hydrocarbon and smoke emissions, comparable carbon monoxide emissions, and higher nitric oxide emissions are observed with biodiesel compared with diesel fuel operation. In general, an improvement in combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions, except nitric oxide, are observed for biodiesel compared with diesel fuel, with a slight penalty in brake thermal efficiency.

Fulltext

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering

Experimental investigations on combustion, performance, and emissions characteristics of a neat biodiesel-fuelled, turbocharged, direct injection diesel engine

Fuel

Effect of biodiesel, biodiesel binary blends, hydrogenated biodiesel and injection parameters on NOx and soot emissions in a turbocharged diesel engine

Developments in Chemical Engineering and Mineral Processing

Instrumentation and Process Control, by N.P. Chopey (ed.), McGraw-Hill Inc., New York (1996). 250 pages. ISBN 0-07-01 1687-3

Who Was Who

Compton, Karl Taylor, (14 Sept. 1887–22 June 1954), President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass, 1930–48; Chairman of Corporation, MIT, since 1948

Energy Conversion and Management

Comparative performance and emissions study of a direct injection Diesel engine using blends of Diesel fuel with vegetable oils or bio-diesels of various origins

Emission characteristics using methyl soyate?ethanol?diesel fuel blends on a diesel engine

Renewable Energy

Characterization and effect of using rubber seed oil as fuel in the compression ignition engines

A comprehensive approach for estimating thermo-physical properties of biodiesel fuels

Journal	Applied Thermal Engineering
ISSN	13594311
Open Access	No